Jesus knew what lay ahead. While he warned his followers, he was also emphasizing his own awareness of the horrible price his gift of love would cost him personally. Yet he went on to his fate in Jerusalem for you and me. He did it knowingly. He did it sacrificially; he deliberately held back his own power to stop what was going to happen to him. The cross that awaited him, the mockery that lay in waiting, and the ugliness that would be heaped on him by those who hated him were known and accepted by him... even, to a certain extent, embraced. Why? Because a ransom had to be paid and sin had to be atoned. By his wounds, the very wounds he was anticipating, we are healed.